Nearly a lifetime has passed since the northwestern Indian Ocean last produced a devastating tsunami. The disaster took place in November 1945, when record-keeping was hindered by instability from the Second World War and, in British India, by the approach of independence and partition. What has been established about the 1945 tsunami falls short of what’s needed today for ground-truthing inundation models, estimating risk to enlarged populations, and anchoring awareness campaigns in local facts.

This booklet aims to increase scientific understanding and public awareness of the 1945 tsunami. It contains testimony from dozens of eyewitnesses to that tsunami, and from younger people who recounted what their elders told them. It is hoped that these collected memories will help save lives during future tsunamis.

In January 2010, the Tonga Broadcasting Commission sent a television crew to Niuatoputapu to interview the survivors of the September 2009 tsunami in Samoa Islands Region. The documentary team interviewed over 50 people, and took along an artist, Soakimi Maka Finau, who drew 31 sketches from the survivors’ descriptions of the tsunami. The one-hour documentary called “Niuatoputapu after the Tsunami of 2009”, was broadcast by Television Tonga in March 2010.

This book is based on the documentary, along with three other interviews recorded on October 3, 2010, at the Vaiola Hospital in Nuku‘alofa, where several injured survivors had been evacuated for treatment. It also includes photographs and diagrams.

This new booklet is intended for people who live, work, or vacation on shores worldwide where fast-arriving tsunamis may strike. The booklet draws survival lessons from eyewitness accounts of the tsunami of December 26, 2004 in Aceh, and of the July 17, 2006 tsunami on the south coast of Java.

The lessons have three main themes. First, several kinds of knowledge provide the earliest warnings of tsunami hazard, during the decades before a tsunami begins. Among warnings of a tsunami underway, earthquake shaking provides the most immediate natural signal to go to high ground. This reaction, in turn, is among nine survival tactics illustrated by the eyewitness accounts.

“Where the First Wave Arrives in Minutes” was compiled by Eko Yulianto, Fauzi Kusmayanto, Nandang Supriyatna, and Mohammad Dirhamsyah. It was adapted for international audiences by Brian F. Atwater, Eko Yulianto, and Ardito M. Kodijat, and it was produced by the Jakarta Tsunami Information Centre (JTIC). The booklet was printed in 2010 for UNESCO/IOC – NOAA International Tsunami Information Centre (ITIC) in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The ITIC and NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center (ICSU World Data Service for Geophysics, Marine Geology and Geophysics Division) have collaborated to produce global hazard maps for tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes. The NGDC manages global geophysical, sea floor, and natural hazards data, including tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes.

The Tsunami Sources (English) poster was updated in 2010, 2011, 2014 and in Spanish in 2012. The Earthquake and Volcano posters were updated in 2010 and 2013. The Tsunami Sources Icosohedron was updated in 2010, 2012, 2014.

Over history (1610 BC to AD 2014), there have been 1212 confirmed tsunamis, of which 245 have been deadly. 76% occurred in the Pacific Ocean and its marginal seas. 87% of the tsunamis were caused by earthquakes.

Map posters and Icosohedrons in hard copy, and high resolution PDFs, are available on request from ITIC. Lower resolution PDFs are available for downloaded below.

Tsunami Awareness Poster, December 2005. This poster can serve as a template for national or local tsunami safety posters and be customized using local languages and photos or graphics. The original design (A3-size) was done in collaboration with Sri Lanka National Science Foundation and the Department of Meteorology for its 3-month Awareness Programme to commemorate tsunami victims on the first anniversary starting from October 26, 2005 and ending on January 26, 2006.

English - Background (Dec 2005)

5.13 MB

English - Solid Background (Dec 2005)

5.95 MB

Singalese - Background(2005)

43.5 MB

French - Solid Background(2006)

1.38 MB

Portuguese - Background (INAM)(2008)

1.36 MB

Portuguese - Solid Background (INAM)(2008)

1.41 MB

Portuguese - Background (IDL)(2010)

1.35 MB

The ITIC has revised and updated several english-language informational brochures and made them available in an electronic format that is easy for translation and localization of graphics. The Microsoft Word files are formated so that the text and graphics are separated into separate objects for easy manipulation, editing, and insertion or deleting of text, photos, and graphics.

In the aftermath of the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, many excellent tsunami awareness materials were developed, especially at the country level, to inform the public and decision-makers on tsunami hazards, risks, preparedness, and mitigation. In this DVD, the ITIC offers a small compilation of general and basic tsunami awareness materials that can be used to support the needs of government agencies, emergency managers and educators. Many of the included materials were originally developed to support countries of the Pacific Tsunami Warning & Mitigation System (PTWS) during the 1990s and early 2000s, and were then revised and updated after the 2004 catastrophe to emphasize tsunamis as a global hazard requiring a global early warning system.For ITIC-authored materials Tsunami, the Great Waves, Tsunami Warning!, and the Tsunami Awareness Safety posters and flyers are provided in formats to allow them to be customized in order to meet the needs, cultures, and languages of countries and local communities. Tsunami Glossary 2008 is also available on request. These formats, including the text and figures, are provided for your copying and free use; we ask that you retain the logos and attributes to the UNESCO IOC ITIC, and the credits to the individual authors and/or agencies, but you may also add your agency information and print and distribute the revised materials free-of-charge. Upon modification, we ask that you provide the ITIC with electronic and print copies of your revision. Your sharing will enable us to share your work with others.The .pdf files, in both low and high resolution (created in Adobe Acrobat 7.0), were created from the originals for both online and print distribution. The .doc files (created in Microsoft Word 2003) are intended for easy translation into other languages, or to allow easy insertion of local information. The .ai files (created in Adobe Illustrator CS) are the original files used to create the product and can be modified to include local images and content. The ITIC would be happy to work with you to finalize and make your materials publication-ready with the same design layout as in the originals.In general, our goal is to have all basic materials available in at least English, French, and Spanish. Selected materials are also available in other languages. These have been contributed by Member States, and ITIC has received copies of their translated materials.All files are available by DVD from ITIC on request, or available for download from the ITIC web site (this webpage), see below. We regret that we are unable to offer the full range and breadth of the materials that are available in this 1-DVD compilation. Please do contact us (itic.tsunami@noaa.gov) if you have other requests or need further information or examples. We very much welcome your additional contributions to our library collection!

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After the 2010 Chile Tsunami, the International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC) was asked to update the booklet to add information on historical and potential tsunami sources off South America, Middle America, and in the Caribbean. In addition, lessons learned from the 2010 tsunami were included in this booklet which was published in Spanish by UNESCO IOC in 2012 (see below). In 2014, Spanish portions were translated into English by the International Tsunami Information Center, and the booklet printed with financing from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Tsunami Program. This 2014 edition will be updated in French and Spanish.

This original U.S.G.S edition of Surviving a Tsunami - Lessons from Chile, Hawaii, and Japan documents the actions that saved lives, and actions that cost lives, as recounted by eyewitnesses to the tsunami from the largest earthquake ever measured -- the magnitude 9.5 earthquake in Chile on May 22, 1960.